California AG responds to egg cage size lawsuit

Appeal response claims state attorneys general have failed to establish economic impact beyond just egg producers.

Jun 07, 2015

The California attorney general responded to six attorneys general challenge of California’s law that mandates production standards for egg production. The court had required the response by June 1.

The state attorneys general had continued to make their case that it put their entire state’s consumers at a disadvantage because of higher egg costs. The state of California’s brief continued to claim that the plaintiffs “have not established any basis to assert standing on behalf of their citizens” but rather each state “seeks to pursue claims on behalf of private egg producers operating within its jurisdiction.”

The state’s appeal said the plaintiffs have failed to show that the claims respond to an identifiable group of residents and instead only apply to producers of shell eggs who wish to sell those eggs in California, and who allegedly must incur capital improvement costs to convert their hen cages in order to do so.

The plaintiff’s brief argues that their suit seeks to protect their citizenry at large from higher egg prices, “but their allegations focus on purported increased costs to producers and include only bare (and contradictory) speculation that the claimed impacts on producers will touch their broader populations,” the appeal said.

There may be a possibility that the attorney general offices may file a reply brief.